


Not On My Watch

by UnicornPopcorn14



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Donnie isn't so bad, Gen, Leo taking charge, Plot Twists, fic request, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26140816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornPopcorn14/pseuds/UnicornPopcorn14
Summary: Leo’s still not over the fact that Donnie ‘has everything recorded’, so he decides to investigate. While dragging his other brothers with him, of course.Requested by the absolute talented,@TheShookKitty!
Comments: 7
Kudos: 110





	Not On My Watch

**Author's Note:**

> “Raph, Leo and Mikey thought that Donnie records everything to make fun of them but there's a twist. You got that? QwQ” -[@TheShookKitty](https://twitter.com/TheShookKitty?s=20)
> 
> Heck no, I don’t, BUT LET’S GO!
> 
> Post “The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle”

Leo’s not a fan of not getting answers right away.

Heck, he’s been calling himself ‘Detective Megamind’ since he was a kid. ‘Cause who else can pull off coming with difficult clues in a charming way other than him?

That’s not the point, though.

The point is, when a question isn’t answered like he hopes, he _digs_. IN. He’s enjoyed observing the way his brothers act once the leftover pizza gets eaten, and none of them admits who does it. Calculating their hand movements, their way-off behaviors, their nervous expressions that they try _so_ hard to mask, had been fun through the years. Since Raph rarely lies/admits his fault mostly forthwith, Leo rates him as the ‘Innocent Pure Chungus’. Mikey’s _terrible_ at keeping secrets for long, so he’s the easiest to catch red-handed. Sometimes he admits his faults to Leo without even asking, making him the ‘Honest To Goodness Q*bert Baby’. And that gets him to the fun part, ‘Dead Barney’. The dude can attempt a murder and act indifferent like the evil turtle he is! Perhaps he’s done that a few times, now, WHO KNOWS!?

Which is the sole reason why it’s so fun when it comes to him. It’s like a challenge, for Leo to try and read through his brother, taking notes of how he speaks, acts and breathes. Okay, maybe the breathing part isn’t so necessary; but overall trying to figure out a secret his brother is keeping is so enjoyable! And, oh, when Mikey and Raph team up with him to crack that case! It can take days for them but they always solve it! One way or another, Donnie gets tired from them looming over him and admits it at the end!

Man, maybe they should ask for a mind reading machine to stop wasting so much time on this… He’s sure Draxum has something that can help them…

BUT WHAT’S THE FUN IN THAT?

So here he is, in a dark room, reaching for the bulb’s switch that’s dangling from the ceiling. Light suddenly illuminates the secret meeting location, which causes Mikey and Raph to squint their eyes while grunting.

“Okay, boys. We’re dealing with a do-or-die situation, here.” He says slamming his fist on the small wooden table in the middle, “Get ready for Operation: Find Out What Donnie’s Doing Wi-”

“Hey, that’s too long and boring.” Mikey, the second-most-trusted agent, groans, “What about uhmm, Operation: Video Tape!”

“That’s boooooring-ier!” He whines, then points at them both with narrowed eyes, “No-grammar-fixing-allowed! That’s the bless of a team without Donnie!”

“Alright, alright, boss-man.” Raph rolls his eyes, clearly not so fazed by the youngers’ actions. But even when he doesn’t show it, Leo knows that Raph doesn’t enjoy being bossed around by him. And _especially_ him. Which makes it more enjoyable. “What’s our plan?”

Mikey yells, “What?! A plan? With no name?! What kind of a plan is that?!”

“Agent 2’s got a point.” Leo nods his head, making Raph grunt.

“Oh, I got it!” Mikey jumps up and down, “What about, Operation: Not On My Watch?”

“Ohohooo I love it!” Leo smirks evilly, pointing at the chart, “Donnie, here we come!”

“What was the operation about, again?” Mikey tilts his head slightly.

Leo’s face goes blank, “W-? You’ve been giving names to the operation without knowing what it’s _about_!?”

“I heard you murmuring about a video tape so I _assume_ you wanna record Donnie?” Mikey gives a guess.

“Yea, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here, either.” Raph says.

“Guuuys!” Leo face-palms, sighing, “Okay, okay, from the top!” He turns on a serious face, “Donnie has been known for doing shady activity since he was a young tot,” He throws printed pictures on the table, containing the young softshell smirking evilly, from stealing money from their Dad’s pocket, to experimenting on their former favorite dolls (*sniff* R.I.P.); “He’s always denied these _absolute facts_ through the years, acting like a silly innocent turtle that _he’s not_!” Leo takes a breath, his tone saddening, “But today, must be the day it all goes down. For he has said, and there I quote: ‘I record everything.’”

Raph and Mikey exchanged looks, “AAAnd?”

“DON’T YOU TWO GET IT?!” Leo screams, switching to his panic-sona, “Donnie re-cooords _everything_! Every. Single. Thing! Do you know what that means?”

“Tha-”

“THAT HE MUST BE SAVING OUR WORST MOMENTS!! Trimming down the videos till it’s just a compilation of us looking like the bunch of idiots he believes we are!” Leo blurts, “Who knows how many times he’s done that already!? Maybe even showing it to April or Pops just to give him praise!”

“Leo-”

Banging on the table, “THIS WILL NOT STAND-”

“CALM YOUR HORSES!” Raph slaps him with a pink flip-flop, for Leo’s brain to go in a state of malfunction. “We shouldn’t jump into conclusions!” Raph says, “Maybe he does that to… uhhh…”

“Because he loves us!” Mikey states enthusiastically with sparkly eyes, “I bet he looooves looking back on our sweet brotherly moments!” He stops when the elders give him ‘really?’ looks.

“No, that’s impossible.” Raph shakes his head, “Let’s say… uhhh… uhmmm… Okay I got nothin’.”

“SEE?!” Leo exclaims, “What else would he possibly do this for!? We _have_ to find out what he’s recorded and delete the files as soon as possible!”

“Alright, Leo, we’re in!” Raph announces, and Mikey nods, “Now, what’s our approach?”

“Sweet!” Leo smiles, bringing a chart with scribbles on the table, pointing as he speaks, “We first wanna interrogate the mostly probable partner-in-crime, which is April, so she doesn’t alert our target, who’s Donnie, that we’re preforming this serious. mission. So, Agent 2, you go to her house, don’t-break-her-door-or-you’ll-die, and ask her about… what she’s been _doing_ lately. Like, has Donnie, for example, no foreshame, shown her any video clip, recently? Stuff like that. You got this?!”

Mikey stands straight with a salute, “YES, SIR!”

Leo turns to Raph, “Agent 1, your mission is to distract our target! Go to Donnie and just… give em a lil bit of your super-cuddly-convincing powers! Just get him out of his lab for a while, and tell him to leave his phone, ‘cause uhhh… he’s been staring at it all day… or something like that! Just come up with any excuse till I delete any videos that contain us in them and you’re good!”

Raph nods firmly.

“Wait.” Mikey interrupts, “Do you even know Donnie’s phone password?!”

Leo pauses, then slams a fist on his palm, “Crap. It’s in numbers, so it can’t be BootyShaker9000.” He gasps, “I’m sure April knows it! Like, pretty sure! Will you be able to slip the code from her, Agent 2?”

“I’ll try!” Mikey claims, “If Dr. Positive doesn’t work, I’ll sadly resort to Dr. Delicate Touch, whatever cost it takes.”

“Jus be careful.” Raph expresses deeply, putting a hand on the youngest’s shoulder, “Girl can flip a three-sixty on you.”

“You’re not helping.” Mikey says.

“Okay, so by that it means, Mikey should head right now to April’s apartment, try the best he could to give us the code as soon as possible, _then_ we start.”

Raph and Mikey hum with a nod.

“And Mikey, don’t forget your weapon.” Raph, taking his leader role, speaks, “Take the path of the sewers, as to not bump into any bad guys. Any problem that faces you, you call us. _Immediately_. You hear me?”

Mikey huffs at the over-protective attitude, but utters a “Fine” nonetheless.

“Then Operation: Not On My Watch, is ON!” Leo yells, “NOW LET’S GO, LET’S GO, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!!!”

The three of them grab their stuff, and while Raph and Leo sat down and chilled, Mikey went on his way towards April’s household, following the oldest’s instructions.

**_30 mins later~_ **

“Agent, how’s everything going?” Leo whispers to the telephone.

“Oh, h-hey, Boss,” Comes out the suspiciously timid whisper from the other line, “I got the code!”

Leo’s face falls flat, “What have you done, Mikey?”

“I- uhh… NOTHING! Totally-didn’t-sell-us-out-to-April-and-tell- her-everything-about-the-operatio-”

“You WHAT?!”

“I’m SORRY! She didn’t wanna say anything until I tell her why I needed it! She even pulled out her mystic bat, Leo. Her _mystic. BAT_!”

“Alright, alright! Just make her promise she doesn’t tell you-know-who anything! Now what’s the code?”

“April isn’t a snitch, but I will! It’s: 327-246-912!”

Writing in his notepad, “Roger. Thanks. You’re allowed to stay where you are or head back!”

“Copy!”

Leo closes the phone with a sigh, turning to Raph.

“Mikey told her everything, didn’t he?” Raph knowingly asks.

“You know how terrible he is when it comes to these stuff. And April’s bat.” Leo shakes his head, “Now that we have the code, let’s roll!”

**_~~_ **

They stand outside the lab, in front of the closed curtain.

“While you’re getting him out, I’m gonna sneak inside with my rad stealth skills! Are we clear?” Kneeling on the ground, Leo looks up to the oldest, preparing himself.

“Clear.” Agent 1 nods, before inhaling to muster up some courage, then heads inside.

Leo listens from behind the curtain carefully, searching the perfect moment to roll in.

“Hey, Donnie!” Comes out Raph’s voice.

“Hey.” Donnie replies in a deadpan tone.

“Man, you look _really_ tired. How about some coffee downstairs? I’ll make the _special one_ for youuuu.” Raph lengths his words for a tempting offer.

“Intriguing, but I must refuse. We’ve been outside for quite a while today and I haven’t gotten to work on anything. Meaning that-”

“Oh, come on, Donnie. When was the last time we hung out together? As eldest siblings? Jus chattin about life?”

There’s a pause, “You never… hinted at wanting to spend time with me before…?”

Leo takes the opportunity that Donnie’s distracted and slips in quietly into the laboratory, hiding behind the machines in beta, carefully enough to not bump into anything. He peeks his head from the side, to watch the two, as his older twin wore a baffled/suspected expression,

“But no, Raph. You know how much time was wasted today?! I need to complete this!”

“Ugh…” Raph grunts in tiresome, and Leo starts to think that Raph’s not only doing this for the mission, “You’ve been staring at this tech for hours! Take a break, Dee! Come on, I’mma help you!”

Leo can see the jolt of Donnie once Raph hoists him up . He grabs on the back of his chair while Raph easily tugs him by his legs,

“No, RAPH! I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE! LET. MY LEGS. GO!”

“It’s gonna be fun, Donnie! Might even wrap you in a burrito blanket, just how you like it!”

Donnie’s face turns in horror, and yells, “NO, NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT! RAAAAPH!”

The younger loses his grip of his chair, starting to squirm while getting dragged outside,

“LET ME TAKE MY PHONE, AT LEAST!”

“Nope, not allowed!”

“Grrrr…”

Leo tries so hard to muffle his laughter while seeing the scene. I mean, who even likes to be the victim of Raph’s burrito blanket? Sure, it gets them to sleep almost instantly, but that’s the worst part, man!

‘ _Focus. No time to waste._ ’

He checks for any noise, concluding that Raph and Donnie are too far away now. Coast is clear. He rolls again like in the movies, while humming the Mission Impossible theme song under his breath, until he reaches the desk and slowly slides upward, still humming in sheer intense. He snatches the phone and the notepad, tapping the password aggressively.

‘ _Come on, come on._ ’ His heart is rapidly accelerating, as if he’s just gone through a marathon, and it isn’t helping him type correctly at all. It takes a few tries for him to finally access in.

‘ _YES!_ ’ He celebrates silently, ‘ _Now, let’s see what the devil’s hidin there…_ ’

He taps into gallery, then folders, then videos, then stops confusingly. There are a ton of videos in there, each one having a distinctive code and as Leo scrolls, his brain hurts more and more. He eventually gives up guessing, and clicks on a random one,

_Click_

The video plays, as in on mute, and for a millisecond Leo thinks about raising it, before he sees himself in the screen, falling down repeatedly. No effects or anything, just a compilation of him falling down, and Leo’s face twists.

‘ _I knew it!_ ’

In his anger, he accidentally scrolls to the next one.

Noiselessly, still, the video plays, for now it’s focusing on Raph and it’s something similar, with him protecting them with each different clip, either wrapping them or shielding them. Leo’s disgusted. Has Donnie really thought that what Raph was doing is funny?!

He slides with his finger, to expectantly find Mikey in the screen, and a compilation of him as well, chucking… objects around? From Rocks to villains to the infamous Cargo Ship that the others haven’t stopped talking about for three days straight. Ah, it’s clear now. DONNIE’S JEALOUS, BECAUSE HE CAN’T FLIP VEHICLES LIKE HIM! That absolute dork! Leo can’t wait to see his face once he can’t find his precious tapes anymo-

_Ding_

A text suddenly pops on the screen, and Leo’s startled for a second before reading it,

_Big Red: LEO, ABOARD, DONNIE’S COMING YOUR WAY!_

Leo _freaks_ , hearing the voices coming to a close,

“…-ikey’s not here, Leo’s nowhere to be found and you suDDENLY HAS THE DESIRE TO ‘HANG OUT’?!”

“DONNIE, WAIT!”

“YOU’VE GOT TEN SECONDS TO TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON BEFORE I GRAB MY PHONE TO CALL M-”

Everything pauses when Leo spots Donnie’s silhouette, light illuminating from behind him so he’s not able to see his expression. Furious, shocked, or confused, Leo knows that bad things are gonna get down, especially with his terrible attempt at hiding. (He’s spotted flat on the ground with a dumb face, trying to camouflage with the carpet. But hey, at least he tried!)

Surprisingly, Donnie just ignores that and turns around to Raph, who’s sweating like there’s no tomorrow,

“Am I allowed to say bad words in this situation?”

“N-N-Nope!” Raph chuckles nervously.

“Dang it.” Donnie says flatly, before stepping inside, “WHAT THE BLEEP ARE YOU DOING, LEO!?”

Leo jumps like a cat who’s just witnessed a cucumber and straightens, “W-W-What am I doing here hahah I’m just admiring your awesome lab with its cool… awesome stuff that are… pretty awesome… that’s for sure… hehee…” He cracks a wiggly smile and prays it comes off as believable.

Who’s he kidding?

Donnie’s eye twitches, “SO YOU JUST _HAPPEN TO BE INTERESTED_ IN MY TECH THAT YOU DESCRIBE AS ‘BORING’ ALMOST EVERYDAY, NOW?!” He comes inside to check on his creations, “WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU’VE MESSED WITH!? THE HOURS, DAYS, AND HARD WORK SPENT ON THESE PRICELESS INVENTIONS GONE JUST BECAUSE OF YOU?”

Leo unconsciously pulls his head a little in his shell with the yells that are hitting him, before taking on his self-defense, “WELL, I WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE IF IT WASN’T FOR _YOU_ MAKING US LOOK LIKE A _BUNCH OF IDIOTS_ WITH YOUR _STUPID VIDEOS_!”

He gasps.

GOD, he blew the secret!

Donnie stops, then turns around slowly with an eyebrow raised, “Excuse me?”

“Drop the act, Dee!” Leo crosses his arms, “We’ve all seen them! Well, I’m the only one who saw them, and I can’t tell you how _disappointed_ I am! To think that it’s funny to just make compilations of us failing!? DID YOU POST THEM ON YOUTUBE OR SOMETHING!?” Leo’s eye is now an inch away from Donnie’s, who’s narrowed them with a lost stare.

“What… are you talking about?”

“THIS!” Leo snaps, shoving Donnie’s phone with his video on in front of his face, “THIS, DONNIE! And don’t try to act innocent! All the clues point to how much you despise us! You just see us as helpless losers, right?! RIGHT!?”

Donnie takes the phones from Leo to play the video. A couple of seconds pass, then he sighs, giving it back to Leo,

“Turn on the volume…”

“Huh?” Leo’s confused for a second, yet scoffs, doing as told and playing the video midway, “Fine! As if that’s gonna change anyth-”

“…-he seems to have trouble running properly-…” The sound of Donnie emits from the phone, while the video shows Leo stumbling onto himself countless times, “…-And as shown, he slips most of the time while escaping; which can someday lead to a serious problem for him and the team…” There’s a brief silence, “Perhaps some kind of shoes would help enlarge the friction, or bandages around his legs, but they should be a typical shade of blue that could fit-” Leo pauses the video, slowly looking back to his brother with a ‘what the heck’ look,

“I-I-I still don’t- What th- What is this?!”

Donnie crosses his arms, “Basic. I’m assessing the flaws of the team, determining our weaknesses and what might hold us back. Because that’s the job I’ve been doing since our first patrol topside. And, at some point I might even access you with new gadgets that can help you.”

Leo’s face falls, “You’re talking about the horrible gifts you gave us a while ago? The one that fried me at some point?”

“Precisely. Though this time is different, since I learn from my mistakes, _Leonardo_. My goal here is to facilitate you three. In other words: make things easier for you. That’s why I “record everything”, because when I see a problem, I hurry to fix it.”

Leo’s sweating nervously, feeling _a bit_ ashamed of being clearly in the wrong. He spots a movement in the corner of his eye, and sees Raph (whom he totally forgot about) standing behind Donnie…

‘ _RAPH!_ ’

He turns to his older twin with a challenging stare, “Then what about _Raph’s video_?! Do you really think that him protecting us is “a problem”?!”

“He what now?” Raph raises an eyebrow.

“It’s not a problem more that it is me getting concerned over this fact.” Donnie quickly explains, turning his head halfway to talk to his older brother, “Because you do not hesitate before stepping in front of a blow for us, I figured I might armor you somehow. Or make something that would stop you from doing this nonsense. But I _knew_ you wouldn’t agree to any of that…”

Leo sees Raph smiling, putting a hand on Donnie’s shoulder, “Heck no, I wouldn’t, Donnie. But I appreciate your worry, nonetheless.”

Leo growls under his breath, then his mind clicks, “Okay, maybe these two are valid, BUT MIKEY’S ISN’T! What’s wrong with him throwing objects around, Huh!? See, I knew it!”

Donnie’s unfazed, “Again, this is nothing to get worked up about. Michael’s been coming to me for shoulder treatment, saying that it’s been hurting him a lot lately. After investigating, I found out that it was because of these said actions, and decided to design a special kind of shoulder pads for him.” Donnie pauses, getting closer, and Leo’s head is almost completely in his shell; “So, next time, before you jump into any conclusions, dear brother, think about this moment, and remember HOW SWEET IT WAS TO GET YOURSELF IN THIS SITUATION!” He screams on his face, “AND GIVE ME THAT!” He snatches the phone, and heads out, “I’M FINDING OUT WHo gave you the password to you dum du-…” His voice completely fades away.

Leo stands there, staring at the entrance.

“Yeesh.” Raph utters, “We kinda blew this one up…”

“Yeah…” Leo says, “I-I mean, _Donnie_ and _niceness_?! It never made sense to me!”

Raph sighs dramatically, “Well, seems like I’ve got no other way to cheer ‘em up except with the burrito blanket method, since the condition is desperate…”

Leo rolls his eyes, “Bro, none of us likes the burrito blanket…”

“Lies.” Raph states knowingly, proceeding to go after Donnie.

The slider huffs, what an epic operation fail. He’s wasted time, got proven wrong, and now his brother is mad at him. So much for the ‘great investigator’. Maybe it’s time for him to retire. After all, his reputation has gotten disgraced. There’s nothing worse than this.

He enters his room, then flops face first on the ground. That’s it. That’s the end of the line. He wouldn’t be able to show his face to the public anymore. He might as well-

Sigh. Maybe he should just go and apologize. Though it’s the worst thing that could ever happen to a turtle, he has no choice. And even so he is okay with this idea, there is NO WAY he’s letting Raph see him doing this.

Huh, he doesn’t hear screaming. Maybe Raph couldn’t catch Donnie. Well, he’ll see.

He stumbles out of the room, as quietly as possible. Once outside, he spots Raph greeting the youngest downstairs. Oh that’s why. Now where’s Donnie?

He lets his ears listen, maybe he can find something. Raph’s chatting, nope. Mikey’s whining, nu-uh. Bleep-Blops…

Bleep-Blops…

THE ARCADE!

He heads there like a tadpole, then leans to peek inside with suspicious eyes, the Mission Impossible theme song playing in his head again. There’s Donnie, holding his phone; and Leo could hear some sounds emitting from it. No, not sounds. Voices. _Their_ voices coming from it. And Donnie smiles-

wait, WHAT?!

DONNIE’S SMILING. Not a creepy, up to no good one. A SOFT GENUINE SMILE. WHILE WATCHING THE VIDEO. And Leo bumps his shell against the edge of the door, baffled on so many levels.

‘ _I’m never doubting Mikey again…_ ’

**Author's Note:**

> Not the most decent ending. Eventually Leo was going to apologize, but I couldn’t come up with an ending with that, so I used a gig from the show! I mean, Mikey’s right most of the time, isn’t he?
> 
> Burrito Blanket is a reference to this cute comic [over here](https://twitter.com/TayTeiArt/status/1212528022466760716?s=20)! AHHH THE FEELS!  
> Big thanks to @3DrotTMNT for helping me out big time! The story couldn’t have finished without you! <3
> 
> Didja like it, [Puddin](https://twitter.com/TheShookKitty?s=20)?! ^^’
> 
> Wanna make a request? Click [here](https://curiouscat.qa/UniPopcorn1414)!
> 
> Contact me on Twitter! You can find me [@UniPopcorn1414](https://twitter.com/UniPopcorn1414)! <3


End file.
